Fukuoka: Sakura and Ramen

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Trip Start Mar 22, 2009 Previous
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  Fukuoka, Kyushu-Okinawa, Japan
Monday, March 30, 2009

Short entry today, only cause there's not much to report.

Took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Fukuoka from Shin-Osaka station. It was a 3 hour ride through some of the nicest scenery I've seen to date. The train was going so fast though, we'd always end up entering a tunnel before I could get a snap of the rice fields and glimpses of the inland sea between Honshu and Shikoku. I'm surprised that the bullet train isn't so much about the train (but they do look futuristic with their rounded noses), but rather the large network of tunnels through the countryside. They provide obstacle-free conduits to allow the trains to reach the speeds they do, which makes me wonder about American investment in Acela technology. As long as the train has to travel through populated areas, American commuting is doomed to be slow and expensive, regardless of mag-lev technology.

Fukuoka is a little warmer than Osaka and more English friendly; the streets have names and most of the signage had English excerpts. The weather was really agreeable--for the first time, I was warm and didn't need gloves. Unfortunately, I spent a good hour at the post office trying to exchange travelers checks. Apparently, the American Express verification line was down (or slow), so I got to wait anxiously for money while making the staff nervous (for inconveniencing me, I assume).

After getting money, I visited a few temples on the way through the downtown Fukuoka for about an hour to the castle ruins at Maizuru Park.   I hit Tochoji, Shofukuji and Kushida-jinja on the way to the castle and Sumiyoshi-jinja on the way back.  Tochoji has several large carved Buddha statues and was rather small.  Shofukuji is on larger grounds and was a very quiet place to relax and watch the many, many turtles swim around the ponds.  Kushida-jinja's highlight is a three to four story tall intricately decorated float that people support and parade during festivals.  It's hard to imagine being able to balance something so precarious for any long period of time.  Sumiyoshia jinja is a Shinto shrine on large grounds and has that classic, and new for me, bright red-orange and white scheme.  I had some fun ringing the bells with the locals and clapping.

On the way to the castle, I passed through the downtown Tenjin area.  I stopped by a random curry shop for lunch--definitely a different concept than I"m used to. It was black curry and only somewhat spicy (I asked for spicy) and came with a side of different pickled vegetables (which was the best part of the meal), and topped with a barely cooked egg (about half of the white was still clear).  Being unused to raw egg, it was rather good nonetheless, but more intriguingly, this was my first encounter with the restaurant ticket machine--some shops have their menu on a vending machine that you pay and print out a ticket from. You hand this ticket over and they come find you with your food after its cooked.  It's almost a combination of streamlining production and reducing person to person communication.  Why do I feel like this is the ominous beginning of a futuristic dystopia?  This machine impressed me, if only because it was electronic, had pictures and a touchscreen and slots for money and change. And it also complete addled me being so hi-tech, so the waitress had to come help me press the buttons. Why can't I do simple things here?

After lunch, I reached the castle (which is basically now just a few elevated foundations and some ruins) and found out that we were at the height of the cherry blossom season--first time I've seen the hanami craze in person. The castle grounds were littered with blooming cherry blossoms (apparently, right at their peak), and people were already picnicking and drinking under the trees when I arrived at one PM on a Monday. Way much more laid back than Osaka for sure.  Also, it was very organized, with large groups of elderly people eating and making toasts--I'm guess some community club on a field trip?  For those stuck at work, no problem.  You just place out a blue tarp on the ground under the trees and leave it.  And no one usurps your space--this would definitely be ridiculously useless back in New York.

After a nice stroll through park, including espying a traditional wedding ceremony, I got back to the hostel,  did some blog updating, as you can see, and then went searching for roadside ramen stalls (yatai), which is apparently the thing to do in Fukuoka. There are a few central locations of many of these stalls, one in downtown and one on Nakasu, the entertainment island in the river.  Unfortunately, the Nakasu site was under construction, but I did get to wander through neon Nakasu, with the restaurants and karaoke clubs just opening and advertising.  Lots of husking and calls and not having been in the center of a bustling city for a while, kinda nerve racking.  Finally found a random yatai on a street near some local park and had a delicious (if not a little salty) ramen meal.  The local specialty is supposed to be the pork bone broth (tonkotsu), which as expected, was very good.  I topped the meal off with some mochi peanut butter chocolate candies back at the hostel (the taste is fine, but the texture leaves something to be desired.)

On the way back to the hostel, I saw a group of people under a single cherry blossom in some kid's playground, picnicking in the dark. Not that you can really enjoy the tree, but I guess hanami's really an excuse just to celebrate--right on then. And then near the hostel, I passed a public toilet, which was the first graffiti I have seen in Japan. The toilet had signs for men and women in kanji. The women's sign was gone for some reason and someone in spray-paint decided to write the kanji for woman in the void. I'm going to assume that there's bad, obscene graffiti around Japan, somewhere, but this one was both rebellious and helpful--is there something profound in this?

So Fukuoka--nice laid back place, but I think it's more of a party oriented city, especially late at night.  Too bad I had just half a day here, but I'm pretty satisfied I've seen what I wanted to see. Even got to wander through Nakasu, the entertainment district, which was just like Osaka, with minibars and men hawking clubs and restaurants.  Of course, I missed out of a lot--there are several huge entertainment complexes like Canal City and Hawk's Town, but give me laid back any day.  (Plus, I've got quite a few weeks to go and my wallet is already significantly lighter.)

Tomorrow...Nagasaki and Kumamoto.

-mike

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Castle foundations	Cherry Blossoms in Fukuoka	Shofukuji temple	Ramen stall

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